These verses in Greek are not easy to understand. “You did not thus learn Christ” (compare Revised Standard Version) involves a most unusual use of the Greek verb “to learn” with a direct object of a person, “Christ, the Messiah.” And verse 21 continues without a break from verse 20, beginning “if indeed” (as in 3.2).
The sense of “learned Christ” seems clear: it means learning about Christ in the gospel which was preached to them; and the moral content of the message they heard was completely contrary to the sins described in the preceding verses. Goodspeed translates “that is not the way you have been taught what Christ means” (Jerusalem Bible “learnt from Christ” could be misunderstood to mean that they had actually heard Christ teach). It is possible that this statement of the writer was caused by the fact that there were people who taught that the new life in Christ allowed such sexual sins as are listed in the preceding verses.
Most translations will want to use an expression more or less equivalent to learned about Christ rather than simply “learned Christ,” which may not make much sense in many languages. The important thing in this verse will be for the translation to make sure that the emphasis is on that, the thing that was learned. Some languages will use a construction very much like what Good News Translation has done. Others will have to say something like “What you learned about Christ was not that thing,” or “What they taught you about Christ, it was not like that,” or “What you learned about Christ, was it that thing?” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “You know that such a life does not agree with what you learned about Christ.”
The first part of verse 21 could be understood as King James Version translates it: “If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him.” The “if indeed” with which the Greek begins does not put in doubt what follows; it is a way of reminding the readers about the facts of their Christian experience. But a translation should not imply (as King James Version clearly states) that the writer is reminding his readers that they themselves had seen and heard Christ preach (so Translator’s New Testament “You certainly did hear him”). As Barth says, the language here “makes sense when it is assumed (as indeed is the case, for example, in 2 Cor 13.3) that ‘Christ’ himself ‘speaks in’ those proclaiming him.” In some languages the best way to represent the meaning will be to do what Barclay has done: “I have no doubt that you have been told about him.”
The Greek continues, “and in him you were taught” (compare Revised Standard Version), which Good News Translation represents by and as his followers you were taught; compare Translator’s New Testament “and as Christians you were taught” (similarly New English Bible).
In a number of languages it is difficult, if not impossible, to speak of believers as being followers, since the term meaning “to follow” implies primarily “to track down” rather than “to accompany” or “to be associated with.” Therefore, in some languages his followers must be rendered as “those who put their trust in him.” In other languages his followers is best rendered as “his people” or “those who belong to him.”
The clause that follows is literally “as is truth in Jesus,” which most, like Good News Translation, translate “the truth as it is in Jesus,” an expression which is generally understood to mean that the content of Christian truth is to be found in the person of Jesus.
In order to represent Jesus as the content of the truth, it may be necessary to translate the truth that is in Jesus as “the true words of the Good News which is about Jesus.” In this way the person of Jesus becomes the content of the Good News. In a number of languages one must add to any term for truth an indication of the content, and thus it seems appropriate here to introduce “the Good News.”
The unusual form of the Greek, however, allows for another understanding of the text. The clause is parenthetical, the infinitives of verses 22, 23, 24 being the objects of the verb “you were taught” in verse 21: “you were taught (as the truth is in Jesus) to put away … to be renewed … and to put on….” The lack of the definite article with the noun “truth” makes it difficult to take it as the subject of the clause, and Beare understands the clause to mean “as he (that is, Christ) is truth in Jesus,” by which is meant that the person and office of the Messiah were manifested in Jesus. Barth and others stress the moral and ethical dimensions of “truth”: right conduct, Christian behavior. This, of course, fits nicely into the context. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “and you have been truly taught therein, what the union with Jesus means for you.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1982. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .